Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was a US writer, poet, critic, and satirist. She also wrote screenplays and short stories. She is best known for epigrams and sharp wit.

Wisdom & Quotes

• She ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B.

- Katharine Hepburn in The Lake

• If all the girls attending it (the Yale prom) were laid end to end - I wouldn't be at all surprised.

- quoted in Alexander Woollcott, While Rome Burns

• Men seldom make passes

At girls who wear glasses.
- News Item

• Three highballs, and I think I'm St Francis of Assisi.

- Just a Little One

• House Beautiful is the play lousy.

- theatre review

• Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,

A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Roumania.
- Comment

• By the time you swear you're his

Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying -
Lady make a note of this:
One of you is lying.
- Unfortunate Coincidence

• It is not a novel to be thrown aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force.

- book review, quoted by A Johnston, Legend of a Sport, The New Yorker

• Razors pain you;

Rivers are damp;
Acids stains you;
And drugs cause cramp;
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses gives;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well life.
- Resume in Enough Rope

• Enjoyed it! One more drink and I'd have been under the host.

- on being asked if she enjoyed a cocktail party; quoted in Howard Teichmann, George S Kaufman

• It costs me never a stab nor squirm

To tread by chance upon a worm.
'Aha, my little dear,' I say,
'Your clan will pay me back one day.'
- Thoughts for a Sunshiny Morning

• Art is a form of catharsis.
• Innocence is a desirable thing, a dainty thing, an appealing thing, in its place; but carried too far, it is merely ridiculous.
• Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.
• Authors and actors and artists and such

Never know nothing, and never know much.
- 'Bohemia', Sunset Gun

• Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.

- Sentiment

• Prince, a precept I'd leave for you,

Coined in Eden, existing yet:
Skirt the parlor, and shun the zoo -
Women and elephants nerve forget.
- Ballad of Unfortunate Mammals

Huey Pierce Long